1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera which converts a picture of an object with photoelectric conversion to image signals for digital recording.
2. Description of Prior Art
This application is based on application No. 9-957/1997filed in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
A camera such as a video camera and a digital camera converts an optical picture of an object to image signals and records them in a recording medium. Some cameras have a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor mounted to a camera main body, and a camera section is rotatable relative to the main body. A photographer can take a picture while observing himself or herself shown in the monitor.
In such a camera, the camera section is rotated around an axis in the lateral direction of the camera main body. Therefore, if the camera section is directed to the LCD monitor, when the image is displayed and recorded, the picture as shown in the LCD monitor is reversed in the vertical direction. By detecting an angle of the camera section relative to the main body, when an object in the side of the LCD monitor is photographed, the image data output in the LCD monitor is reversed upside down and recorded. Thus, the picture is displayed and recorded normally in such a case.
However, in general, a picture is taken by a video camera, a digital camera or the like on a natural object, and it needs a very large memory capacity to record the data of the picture. Therefore, in order to reverse the image data upside down and to record it at a fast speed, a very high speed central processing unit, an expensive signal processor, a memory of large capacity and the like are needed.
An object of the present invention is to provide a camera which can take a picture at a fast speed and display an inverted picture in the monitor without using an expensive and complicated circuit.
A digital camera of one aspect of the invention comprises a camera main body which processes and records picture signals, an image pickup device which takes a picture of an object and converts image signal of the object to picture signals with photoelectric conversion, and a display device which displays an optical image of the object taken by the image pickup device. A storage device stores the optical image of the object taken by the image pickup device. A detector detects whether a direction of optical axis of the image pickup device agrees with a direction of the picture in the display device. When the direction of optical axis of the image pickup device detected by the detector agrees with the direction of picture in the image pickup device, a controller controls the display device to display by reversing the signals taken by the image pickup device upside down, while it controls the storage device to store the optical image without reversing the signals. In this camera, a photographer himself or herself can be photographed by rotating the image pickup device to the side of the display device. When a picture is taken in this state, the picture shown in the display device can be reversed upside down, while it is recorded to the storage device without reversing the signals.
An advantage of the present invention is that when a photographer takes a picture while directing the image pickup device to an object in the side of the monitor, a picture can be taken at a fast speed without using an expensive and complicated circuit.